Readington residents vie for seat on Hunterdon Central school board

“I think there’s a lot of people upset about a lot of issues and want change. And I do, too.” - Hunterdon Central school board Lori Blutfield.

READINGTON TWP. — The race to fill the Readington seat on the Hunterdon Central Regional High School board may shape up to be a referendum on the leadership of Superintendent Christina Steffner.

Joseph Morris and Lori Blutfield vie to succeed resident John Papazian, who is the current board president and is not running for another the three-year term.

Morris, a nine-year resident of the township, has been active in Central’s football booster club for four years and is currently its president. Morris decided to run for the seat after Coach Matt Perotti suggested he’d do a good job, he said.

“Not unlike my experience with the football boosters,” Morris said in an email, “I see less and less people stepping up these days.” Morris said he discussed it with his family, fellow booster club board members and other parents. “They showed overwhelming support,” he said.

Morris said that he has “absolutely no agenda” to push on the board. “I do not have any affiliation with any community group and have no personal agenda, grievance, or concerns beyond helping to ensure a successful program.” He hopes to expand the reputation that he has garnered among booster members, he said, “as a person that will get things done while all along considering all opinions objectively.”

He and his wife have three children, including two at Hunterdon Central.

Morris said that he is neither angry with the way things are nor perfectly content. “Yes, I am pleased with what I see from where I stand and I believe that the school does a very good job,” he said. "Hunterdon Central school system is one of the better systems
in the state.

“With that said, it makes sense to be open-minded and look for new ideas or ways to improve the system as we face new challenges.”

Morris said although he hasn't viewed John Painter's Facebook page, I.C. Red. He has read printouts of blogs posted by the photographer-parent and thinks some of the things Painter has written are “questionable.”

Painter was recently barred from the field among accusations that he posed a danger to students, which school officials initially denied, but later did not. Painter claims he was barred because of comments posted on the Facebook page that criticized Steffner and Principal Suzanne Cooley.

Morris said he supports the decision to bar nonessential people from the field. “He comes across as a rabble-rouser,” Morris said of Painter. “With freedom of speech, there’s responsibility,” he said.

As for the school board, “I haven't met anyone on the board but I'm looking forward to
getting to know them,” he said. “These are passionate people who care about the school.”

Morris’ opponent, Lori Blutfield has appeared before the school board a number of times during the past year, advocating for the district to close school on the Jewish high holy days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

Blutfield is one of the creators of an online petition urging the board to reconsider a recent policy that follows state holidays rather than the desires of the school’s constituent community.

That doesn’t mean she’s a single-issue candidate, Blutfield said. “What struck me at those meetings was how ineffective the board is,” she said. “The majority of the board just wants to rubberstamp everything. I don’t think that’s an effective way to run a school.”

Blutfield pointed to a Hunterdon Central controversy last spring over a policy that requires prior review by the principal of everything to be published in the Lamp, the school’s award-winning student newspaper. Blutfield also decried Steffner’s ouster of Painter from the football infield.

“It feels like the school is being run by one person and everybody else is just going along with things,” she said. Look at the numbers, she said. “Our school is not doing well.” Test scores are less than those of peer schools, she said, “but our spending is on the higher end.” Because she has a child who is a seventh-grader, another who is a sophomore and a third who just graduated, she said, “I have a vested interest.”

Blutfield is looking beyond the Nov. 5 election.

“I think there’s a lot of people upset about a lot of issues and want change. And I do, too.